Hey guys,
Looking for some health/fitness advice from people who have a lot of experience.
I feel like I'm to that "plateau" point that everyone talks about and am struggling to continue seeing results.
Background on me:
5'9" around 140 lbs. 27 years old
Active and athletic build, in very good shape compared to the average person. Higher than average metabolism.
I workout 5 days a week (Mon-Fri) and some weeks I do Saturdays as well (making it 6 days/week). Been doing so for 3+ months.
My workouts generally run about an hour.
Workouts generally run like this:
- Cardio every single workout - Run 1 mile @ 7:30-8 minute pace, then run 4-5 45 second sprints (HIIT type sprints w/ 30 second rests in between)
- Standard Arms / Chest / Back / Shoulders / Legs workout rotations throughout the week.
- About 10-12 minutes of abs at the end of each workout
Diet:
Very disciplined on diet during the week. No more than 1,500 calories and solely healthy & low carb foods. Not Keto, but low carb diet. On the weekends that goes up some due to drinking, etc.. but nothing too crazy.
Anyways, to the issue. I'm satisfied with the growth I'm seeing in arms/chest/shoulders, etc. I just cannot get rid of that little bit of lower stomach fat. Can't do it. Abs are visibly noticeable, but the lower ones are subpar compared to the upper abs due to the lower stomach fat.
I feel like I'm doing everything right.. cardio, eating healthy, and good metabolism.. but can't seem to get results on burning that off. I've added a little more cardio in the last week or two and not any noticeable difference.
Anyone have any tips that worked for them? Something they added?
Anything helps, thanks y'all!
Hey there, I didn't read all the previous comments because I want to give my personal input in here, for you.
First of all, I am a very experienced sportsman, been training for 8 years disciplined. I'm weighing about 250lbs at 6,7ft/201cm with barely bodyfat, 13-14% (abs are shown).
What I think you have to change is your mindset, first of all. You're a beginner in sports and you want to take 2 things at once, trying to get rid of your fat on your lower stomach
and grow muscles.
I can tell you straight away, that wont work efficiently at all. It is possible, when you're on steroids but I highly recommend
you not to try that, ever!
I always tell people: "Everyone can hit the gym, everyone can lift weights, but that might be 30% of the input. The other 70% has all to do with a proper diet and good rest". So bare that in mind.
Lets start with your training routine. For a beginner, it's no problem to train 5 days a week and do a big variety of musclegroups multiple times a week. Your body has to get used to training anyway. Since you're already been training for 3 months, and I assume you're having a standard routine in your training and you're noticing the muscle strain is becoming lesser by the week. Your body is getting used to training, if it's not becoming lesser, keep going on untill it does.
There are alot of different training schedues, I will tell you the one I've been using in variety over the years. I do not say that other methods aren't good!
I tend to train 3
OR 6 times a week. The schedue has a 3 day routine with 1 rest or cardio day. To use this schedue the most effective you'll be training 1 big muscle group and 1 small muscle group every day, your abs is variable over the week (I did them daily).
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DAY 1
Big musclegroup: Chest (3-4 heavy excercise, low reps: 6-8 + 1 last excercise for pump)
Small musclegroup: Triceps (2-3 heavy excercise, low reps 6-8 + 1 last excercise for pump)
Always do the basic excersice of the musclegroup.
- For your chest always do the benchpress. Other than that: upper chest, side chest (fly's) and lower chest. There's a ton of excercises you can apply.
- For your triceps always do the lat pulldown. Other than that: Your triceps is made of 3 (tri) muscles, so one inner and one outer pulldown atleast.
DAY 2
Big musclegroup: Back (3-4 heavy excercise, low reps: 6-8 + 1 last excercise for pump)
Small musclegroup: Biceps (2-3 heavy excercise, low reps 6-8 + 1 last excercise for pump)
Always do the basic excersice of the musclegroup.
- For your back always do the deadlift. Other than that it's a variety of a rowing excercise for the core muscles, wide lat pull down excercise for your upper "wings" or teres minor/major muscle and a small lat pull down excersice for your lower "wings" or latissimus dorsi muscle.
- For your biceps always do a seated bicep curl with rod for the most balance. Other than that do a "hammer curl" excercise and opposite curl from that, I don't know how to pronounce it in English. The biceps has 2 (bi) muscles, a long and short one. The long one you'll train with hammer curl variety excercises and the small one with inner curl variety excercises.
DAY 3
Big musclegroup: Legs (3-4
(or 5 with long legs) heavy excercise, low reps: 6-8 + 1 last excercise for pump)
Small musclegroup: Shoulders (3-4 heavy excercise, low reps 6-8 + 1 last excercise for pump)
Always do the basic excersice of the musclegroup.
- For your legs always do squats, other than that my variety was for the calves, outter upper legs (quads), inner upper legs (hamstrings)..... yes, my butt included too, in my defence I have a great looking ass for a guy now, and 1-2 strength excercises such as the excercise "lunges".
- For your shoulders always do the shoulder press (I liked the machine more than dumbells due to the rate of injuries, but it's all up to you), other than that train your front, side and back of the shoulders.
DAY 4
Sometimes I just took a restday, watched a movie.. relax and go to bed early but some days I went to the gym and did cardio, went to the spa (very good for your health and becoming leaner) or scrapped the restday and started repeating DAY 1 again and took a restday every sunday after 6 days of working out.
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About your diet, 1,500 calories is far from enough to grow. I suggest you to take atleast 2500 calories.
With dieting it is the same as training routines, there is a wide variety and mine is not per definition the best one but it did work for me.
The most simple theory: If you take in more then you train out, you will grow. If you train out more then you take in, you don't.
Dieting is not about being disciplined, it's alot of knowledge and knowing your body. It can take months or years before you figured out your body and start working out efficiently. It took me almost 2 years before I figured it out and started to see my body change.
I can't give you a personal diet plan because I don't know you as a person and every person reacts different to a diet. So all I can tell you for now is try to eat clean (no junkfood, drinking) and use this rate for a stable growth as beginner: 40% Protein, 40% Carbs, 20% Fat.
You can track your food by using apps such as MyFitnessPal, FatSecret etc. There are plenty of apps that help you by tracking your food. This is how I learned it.
In my opinion you should focus on getting more muscular first before trying to get lean, and I hope this helps you on your way.
If you need more information, just ask away!